BrownBag Blow Out – vSphere Lab Give Away

Update – 12/17

So, the decision process took longer than I had anticipated, however we have selected and are contacting the winner. We will post when we have permission for the video and confirmation that he can indeed receive the gear.

So, here’s the dealy-yo. The BrownBags have grown HUGELY this year, and we’ve had a number of big names as guests and lots of interesting deep dives. Additionally Damian and Nick have both taken the show to new levels. With that in mind, I wanted to blow this year completely out of the water but putting together a give-away for our last show.

The Prize

With the help of a LOT of folks, we’ve put together quite the vSphere Training package:

Books:

Yes, books. In fact a small vSphere library to get you started down the road. Each one of the books is being contributed by their author or through the author to the publisher.

• Scott Lowe – Mastering vSphere 5
• Ed Haletky – ESX and ESXi in the Enterprise
• Duncan Epping & Frank Dennenman – Clustering Deep Dive
• Maish Saidel-Keesing – vSphere Design
• Christopher Kusek – vSphere 5 Instant Reference Guide
• A VMwarePress Library as they become available.
• … Maybe more

Video

Possibly the best vSphere video training out there (and not just because they’re sponsors), but because from personal experience, they’re damn good.

• David Davis & Elias Khnaser – TrainSignal vSphere 5

Gear:

Yes, gear. What kind of learning experience would it be if we gave you all this wonderful stuff to learn about and nothing to practice on. In that vein we’ve had a number of vendors step up and contribute some gear.

• Santa Chad – Iomega IX4-200d
• V-Ray w/ Symantec BackupExec/NetBackup – Core i7 Laptop.
• Tintri (Chris McMinn & Justin Lauer) – 60GB OCZ Vortex 3 Drive

Software

How else to test it, but with some software.

• Thanks to Jason Langer for throwing in a copy of VMware Workstation! Boom!
• Also, John Troyer from VMware has thrown in a 365 Day Eval of vSphere and a full license of VMware Fusion

Live Training

• 2 Hours VCAP-DCA Training from Bobby Stampfle (@BobbyFantast1c)
• 1 Ticket to the vScience Seminar

Exam Vouchers

Courtesy of Jon Hall at VMware, we have 5x VCP Vouchers to hand out. 1 to the winner, 4 to some random runners up.

Accessories!

What lab would be complete without some accessories? Jason Boche is going to throw in for a vCalendar!

How do I win?

In order to win, I need from you, the BrownBag attendee, a 1 – 3 minute video, explaining who you are and how you think the lab would help you.

As far as getting the videos to me, upload it to the service of your choice and email a link to contest@professionalvmware.com. Here’s the important part: YOU MUST DO THIS BY MIDNIGHT 12/13. Myself and a panel of others will review these and pick a winner based on need.

The Rules

There are always rules, this is no exception, but I’ll keep it short. 1) I can’t ship internationally… at least not with ease, so, *If you have a US proxy who will help you with shipping, that’s cool and feel free to enter. However, I will only have these items shipped to US addresses*. 2) If you work for any of the vendors mentioned above… sorry. 3) If you work with me, also, sorry. 4) We’ll try to make the decision on the winner by the 14th and no later than 12/16. 5) Shipping – Each item will be shipped from the respective sponsors, so I don’t know when it’ll all get to you. 6) Most importantly – While I’ll try to be as fair as I can, you agree by entering this(or winning it) to not sue me. Really, I’m a one man operation trying to help you out.

Note

I’m not a spammer… just wanting to give back to the community that helped get me where I am. I won’t sell any of your info. Ever.